Tears and mourning for 14 passengers killed when bus overturns in Arkansas

CARYN ROUSSEAUAssociated Press Writer

Published Tuesday, October 12, 2004

click photo to enlarge

An investigator from the National Transportation Safety Board is aided by an Arkansas State Police officer as he collects data at the site of a bus crash Sunday, Oct. 10, 2004, in Marion, Ark. Investigators combed through the patch of grass, searching for clues to why a tour bus drifted off the pavement and overturned, killing several people.

AP Photo WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. -- While relatives kept vigil with hospitalized survivors and church parishioners prayed for the dead, investigators scoured the crash site where a bus packed with gamblers overturned, killing 14 passengers.

Thirty people were aboard the Mississippi-bound charter bus from Chicago when it flipped over early Saturday on Interstate 55, 25 miles north of Memphis. Sixteen people were injured, many seriously.

The twice-a-year trip had become a tradition for the passengers, and it was as much about visiting, laughing and reminiscing as it was about trying to strike it rich at a casino in Tunica, Miss.

"It's just neighborhood and community," Brenda Clay, of Memphis, Tenn., said Sunday in a hospital waiting room. "There are still good old American communities where people get together and do things together."

Clay kept vigil at the Regional Medical Center in Memphis where a relative, 62-year-old Herbert Redmond, was taken. She was grateful for those who helped on the scene and at the hospital.

One of the firefighters helped care for Redmond, Clay said. "He was conscious, just a minute or so," Clay said. "Even though he was awake only for a brief time, it was good that someone was there."

Investigators planned to create computer models of the accident in their search for the cause. At the crash site Monday, investigators were trying to determine whether the driver, Herbert Walters, 67, fell asleep at the wheel or if there was a mechanical problem with the bus. There was no sign that Walters, who was among those killed, had a backup driver, and it appeared he had been driving all night, said National Transportation Safety Board investigator Gary Van Etten. Regulations prohibit drivers from driving more than 10 hours in a 24-hour period, he said.

"What he did during the daytime hours would be of great interest to us so we could evaluate any possible fatigue that he might have had," Van Etten said.

Walters' family said the bus left Chicago at 8:30 p.m. Friday and the accident happened at 5 a.m. Saturday, 81/2 hours later. The bus was less than an hour from its destination when it crashed.

Officials cautioned that a final police report would not be ready for a week, and NTSB findings will take longer.

Herbert Walters' brother Roosevelt is the owner of the mom-and-pop tour operation. In addition to losing his brother, Roosevelt Walters lost his 67-year-old wife, Maureen, who arranged the trip.

"In one instant, he lost it all," the Rev. James Meeks told his congregation at Salem Baptist Church on Chicago's South Side. "It seemed like a tight-knit group of people who were fun-loving."

Billy Lyons, 63, and his wife, Maxie, 64, had been making the trips to Tunica for the past decade -- more to spend time with their friends than to try to get lucky in the casinos, said their son, John Coney.

"They enjoy life. They were very family oriented," Coney said.

Maxie Lyons was among those killed, while her husband suffered broken legs.

Theophilus Cannon, 49, who was injured, was unable to speak to his sister, Octavia Eddings. But he wrote on a notepad: "I feel better." His fiancee, Shirley Fox, 49, told Eddings she recalled feeling "a big bump" on the bus and saw Cannon go flying past her.

"She saw another guy go to the left. She said it was an instant. There was no warning. Nothing," Eddings said. "She said the bus just started automatically tumbling."